3 Aug 1940 | World War II Database

3 Aug 1940

Winston Churchill warned the British people against believing rumors that invasion threat is over. ww2dbase [CPC]
Japanese luxury ocean liner Hikawa Maru disembarked 82 Jewish refugees at Pier 89, Seattle, becoming the first Japanese ship to take on Jewish refugees to North America. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
German submarine U-57 sank Swedish ship Atos at 0810 hours north of Ireland; 1 was killed and 27 were rescued. German submarine U-A stopped Yugoslavian ship Rad at 1900 hours 300 miles off of the coast of Senegal in western Africa and later found out she was carrying chemicals from the United States for South Africa; the crew of 29 was put to lifeboats, and U-A sank Rad with a torpedo. ww2dbase [First Happy Time | CPC]
Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic became a member nation of the Soviet Union. ww2dbase [Annexation of the Baltic States | CPC]
Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt was assigned the Commander Special Service Squadron aboard gunboat Erie, relieving Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox, Jr. ww2dbase [CPC]
Destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright departed Buenos Aires, Argentina for Santos, Brazil. ww2dbase [CPC]
A second batch of five Beaufighter IF fighters were handed over to the RAF for evaluation. ww2dbase [Beaufighter | AC]

British Somaliland

Italian General Guglielmo Nasi led an invasion force of 25,000 troops into British Somaliland from Ethiopia. ww2dbase [Invasion of British Somaliland | TH]

Hong Kong

By this date, all service families and registered non-service British women and children in Hong Kong were evacuated to the Philippines and elsewhere. ww2dbase [CPC]

Italy

Alessandro Malaspina transited the Strait of Gibraltar during the night. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | Strait of Gibraltar | CPC]

United Kingdom

Heavy fog restricted the German Luftwaffe to conducting only a small number of raids on Britain during the day. Overnight, German bombers attacked Bradford, Liverpool, Crewe, and the Firth of Forth. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | CPC]
Two Japanese businessmen were arrested in London, England, United Kingdom. In response to a protest by the Japanese Ambassador, the authorities denied that their arrest was a reprisal for the arrest of British citizens in Japan six days prior. ww2dbase [London, England | AC]